The Question Separating Authors From Writers

The moment we realized our words had power didn’t come from a bestseller or a packed book signing. It came from a five-dollar bill.

With other authors, we wrote a small book called Five Dollars. Simple idea: one act of kindness could change someone’s day, maybe even their life. We sent out copies with a letter and a five-dollar bill tucked inside, asking readers to pass the kindness on.

Not long after, a woman emailed us. She’d used her five dollars to buy lunch for a homeless man she passed every day. She wrote: “I realized I’ve been waiting for someone else to fix the world. But your letter reminded me I could start.”

That one message hit harder than any royalty check or review ever had. Our words—paired with intent—had rippled outward in a way we’d never fully see.

In that moment, we knew: our words mattered. Not because they were perfect, but because they moved someone to act.

Every author faces a fork in the road. One path leads to platform—followers, visibility, the machinery of attention. The other leads to purpose—clarity about why your words need to exist in the world.

Platform asks: How do I get people to notice me?

Purpose asks: What am I trying to change?

Both questions are valid. But one of them will keep you writing at two in the morning when nobody’s watching. The other won’t.

I’ve worked with authors for decades. The ones who finish, who produce work that actually lands, aren’t the ones with the biggest audiences or the smoothest prose. They’re the ones who can answer a single question: What’s supposed to be different after someone reads this?

Here’s what most writing advice gets wrong. It treats craft like the destination. Learn structure. Master dialogue. Tighten your sentences.

Craft matters. But craft in service of what?

A well-built hammer is useless if you don’t know what you’re building. Most authors I meet have spent years sharpening their tools. They can write clean paragraphs. They understand scene and summary. What they can’t articulate is why anyone should care.

This isn’t a failure of skill. It’s a failure of excavation. They haven’t dug deep enough into their own reasons.

Joseph Homme came to us with a manuscript about a rural Alaska doctor. Dr. Vincent Hume had been brilliant—skilled in the operating room, respected in town governance. Then his life unraveled in full public view. Years later, the community still carried questions nobody wanted to ask out loud.

Joe’s book, Cures and Chaos, didn’t sanitize the story. It walked through greatness and collapse. Before we published, we had frank conversations. The book would stir memories. Not all of them kind. But Joe had earned the family’s trust through honesty. Dr. Hume’s widow said it best: “For good and bad, this book tells it like it happened.”

What Joe sacrificed was comfort. What he gained—what the community gained—was perspective. A mysterious legacy came to light. People could finally talk about what they’d been carrying.

Joe knew exactly what he wanted to be different. That clarity cost him something. It also made the book matter.

If you’re writing a book, or thinking about writing one, stop asking how to get noticed. Start asking what you’re trying to change.

Not the world. Maybe just one reader. Maybe just one assumption they’ve carried too long.

That’s enough. That’s actually everything.

Your story matters. Your expertise deserves a book. I believe all of that. But none of it answers the question that will carry you through.

What do you want to be different?

Answer that, and the rest becomes craft. Important, learnable, doable craft.

Skip it, and you’ll write a manuscript that sounds like everyone else’s—competent, forgettable, and wondering why nobody cared.

If you’ve ever wondered what to do with a truth you’re not ready to share, The Power of Authors explores what it means to defy silence—even quietly, even privately, even now. You can find The Power of Authors on Amazon: http://bit.ly/3K6o8AM. If you’d like an autographed copy: http://bit.ly/4pgmzjM

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